In this article, the author uses lesson reflection as a way to consider ethical issues that accompany teaching with texts that include death. More specifically, the article examines the relationship between moral education and analytic or skills-based education.

Sierra Leone is only one of the more than 50 armed conflicts currently going on around the world. It is estimated that 20 million children were either refugees or displaced internally, and some 300,000 children under the age of 18 were used in hostilities at any given time as government or rebel soldiers, with about one-third reportedly fighting…

To "empower students to think and act more effectively" concerning violence and bullying within schools, Allison L. Baer and Jacqueline N. Glasgow suggest close examination and discussion of literature that foregrounds violence and bystander participation. Baer and Glasgow recommend several useful novels for addressing the various roles of…

Maryellen G. Paquette reveals the excitement and learning that can occur when high school students are presented with multiple opportunities to play. Activities that employ playful language and the whole body allow students to embody, name, and identify with complicated emotions and situations in Shakespeare's plays. In addition, play can be…

Describes one strategy used in high school English classrooms to teach for peace and dislodge violence: the poetry slam, a burgeoning pop culture phenomenon that combines poetry and performance art. Describes poetry slams that incorporate hip-hop culture. Discusses promoting slams in English classrooms to show students the power of words and…

Describes the author's experience writing a novel which she believed was a love story, but came to realize was a story about domestic violence. Argues for a strong role for young adult literature in examining the realities of abusive, confining relationships. Notes that young people have been helped in dealing with their own dilemmas by seeing…

An English teacher presents a unit on violence in young adult literature where she starts by helping students understand violence and its origins. The students express strong, informed opinions about "Shattering Glass" by Gail Giles through activities and class discussion to recognize the need to read and view images of violence from an…

Describes a 3-pronged policy to control budding problems of violence in a Midwestern school of about 2,600 students. Explains why each of the three policy changes--more lunch periods, assigned lockers, and mandatory student identification cards visibly displayed on each student--have made an enormous difference. (TB)

An attempt is made to show how at-risk students can increase their literacy skills through reading film as text by connecting classical Greek and Elizabethan theater to contemporary film. Films that feature violence are utilized by students to increase their literacy skills and also reach a critical awareness of the impact of violence in our…

Describes how one high school English teacher developed and taught a unit that would give students the opportunity to see how violence and nonviolence affects their lives. Notes the unit involves discussing the lives and careers of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., viewing film clips and film, reading, writing in journals, and writing a…

Tells the story of three high school students whose violent, confrontational behavior proved inveterate despite the meting out of various conventional punishments such as in-school suspension. Posits that some students may be untreatable through the disciplinary apparatus available to school administrators. (TB)

Argues that English teachers are in an admirable position to move troubled, violent students in directions that will prove productive for them. States what the real situation is in regards to violence in schools today. Looks at root causes for violence. Considers what secondary schools can do in cooperation with teachers. Outlines teaching…

Explores how journal writing in a free form--without consideration of grammar, punctuation, or other mechanics and without the guidance of an assigned topic--may lead to trusting relationships with teachers and students' increased understanding of their own needs and motives. Suggests that behavior of troubled students improves as a result of this…

Argues for three levels of solutions to today's problems with violence in the schools: (1) crisis management, including surveillance and close supervision; (2) mediation, through which third parties referee disputes; and (3) the English curriculum, which cultivates many different ways of questioning, valuing, seeing. (TB)

Argues for a series of classroom strategies designed to help inner-city students distinguish between violence in their lives for which they are responsible and violence in their lives cause by larger societal structures. Describes possible readings, films, and corresponding writing exercises. Describes contact with community nonviolence groups and…